22 | CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS | CJN.ORG
LOCAL
NOVEMBER 9, 2018
Fire cleanup closes West Temple for weeks JANE KAUFMAN | STAFF REPORTER @jkaufmancjn jkaufman@cjn.org |
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faulty ballast in a light caused an electrical fire and smoke damage Nov. 4 at Beth Israel-The West Temple in Cleveland. Rabbi Enid C. Lader said she and temple education director Debbie Chessin were preparing to lock the building and were doing final checks after religious school Nov. 4 when the building-wide smoke alarm sounded. At first, Lader saw nothing. On her trip up from the basement a second time, she noticed a cloud of acrid black smoke near the ceiling of the children’s library, making its way toward the sanctuary. Lader said she notified the Cleveland Fire Department, stood outside the building at 14308 Triskett Road to flag down the responders and then watched a firefighter carry out two of Beth Israel’s four Torah scrolls simultaneously. “He held them like he was carrying out children from a blaze,” Lader said. “It was just so beautiful to see him carry them out so tenderly and carefully.” Beth Israel chair of security Rick Keller and temple president Peter Sackett carried out the other two scrolls. “The whole building needs to be cleaned from top to bottom,” she said, adding that the temple has insurance to cover the cleaning, which is expected to take three to four weeks. Lader said she does not know how many of the Jewish children’s books housed in the library were damaged, but there have already been offers to help replace them. Lader did not have an estimate on damges. Beth Israel will hold its Kristallnacht
“Our building is the physical center of Jewish life on Cleveland’s West Side. I know that it’ll get cleaned up. We’ll be back in the swing of things, and although we might not be open for business, we’re definitely taking care of the business we need to take care of.” Rabbi Enid Lader Beth Israel-The West Temple commemoration and service at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9 at West Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, 20401 Hilliard Blvd. in Rocky River. The service will feature the Ross family string quartet, along with readings and a presentation by Arnie Milner of Agudath B’nai Israel Synagogue in Lorain, who has developed a Holocaust education program. Shabbat morning services will be held for the next few Saturdays at members’ homes. For information about service locations, Lader advised people to email bethisrael@nls.net. Lader said she expects some clergy to take part in the Kristallnacht program especially those who couldn’t attend on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3 when the congregation held services both to welcome new members and to mourn the loss of the 11
Rabbi Enid Lader stands in the children’s section of the library on Nov. 6, where damage from an electrical fire Nov. 4 can be seen inside the library at Beth Israel-The West Temple in Cleveland. | CJN photo / Becky Raspe
people killed at Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh, as well as two AfricanAmericans killed in Jeffersontown, Ky. “Our building is the physical center of Jewish life on Cleveland’s West Side,” Lader said. “I know that it’ll get cleaned up. We’ll be back in the swing of things, and although we might not be open for business, we’re definitely taking care of the business we need to take care of.” Staff at several Panera locations were quite generous in allowing her to set up shop in a booth when she needs to hold one-on-one meetings with congregants, she said. Lader has been working at home with her cell phone as well.
Lader said Sackett has provided thoughtful leadership. In addition, she said Rabbi Lauren Werber at Elyria’s Temple B’nai Abraham reached out immediately, and Beth Israel will share space at Temple B’nai Abraham for religious school over the next few weeks. “I felt like this past week was the frying pan,” Lader said. “And we went out of the frying pan and are now into the fire.” Still, she said she has felt buoyed by the response from members, other clergy and the Cleveland Board of Rabbis. “We’re definitely not in this alone.”
Ratner continues to push shareholders to nix transaction ED CARROLL | STAFF REPORTER @EdCarrollCJN ecarroll@cjn.org |
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or the second week in a row, Forest City Realty Trust co-chairman emeritus and former CEO Albert Ratner has urged Forest City shareholders to vote against the company’s pending acquisition by Brookfield Property Partners, writing Nov. 1 that Forest City’s recently reported third quarter earnings were “further evidence that the Forest City Board of Directors significantly undervalued the company under the terms of its proposed sale.” Ratner again urged his fellow shareholders to vote to reject the Ratner transaction during the company’s special meeting Nov. 15. The Nov. 1 letter follows a letter he wrote to shareholders on Oct. 25,
where he put out five arguments against the proposed sale, including Ratner’s belief that the sale price is too low and the process has been flawed, among other arguments. In the most recent letter, Ratner said the company’s third quarter results show how undervalued the sale is for shareholders. “The price agreed upon by the company’s Board of Directors amounts to only slightly more than its equity book value stated at cost, as reflected on the company’s balance sheet as of Sept. 30,” Ratner wrote in the letter. “The balance sheet shows equity at cost (total equity plus accumulated depreciation) of over $5.9 billion, or $21.86 per share. By paying an effective price of $24.99 per share – taking into account the two quarters of dividends that Forest City shareholders will forego as a result of the deal and assuming a quarterly dividend of $0.18 (which, as demonstrated below, should be much higher in light of the company’s significant net earnings this year) – Brookfield will be capturing for itself the significant
value appreciation that the company has realized from its ownership of iconic buildings in major markets (e.g., The New York Times building in NYC) for only $3.13 per share, or approximately $845 million in total.” Ratner and his family members’ ownership stakes add up to approximately 10 percent of Forest City’s outstanding shares. He noted in the release that new board members were named after a board “refresh” in March and six of the seven directors who supported the sale had only been on the board for 66 days prior to reaching the agreement with Brookfield, and appear to be in “an unnecessary rush to sell the company, given that the terms negotiated failed to generate the value that it could have for shareholders.” “The strong third quarter and nine-month results reveal a more favorable overall risk profile for Forest City, which begs the question, why did the Board agree to such a fire sale price?” wrote Ratner in the release. “And shouldn’t the proxy be amended to include current events, and to refresh the projections ... to reflect these results?”